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Longtime customers plan renovation at the Derby House

The new owners also plan to add Southern comfort food for October reopening.

Michael Williams (left) and Zack Nettles discuss their big plans for the patio area as they work to convert The Derby House restaurant in Five points to the new Derby House on Park, which they plan to open in October.

Michael Williams (left) and Zack Nettles move some booth seats around as they work to convert The Derby House restaurant in 5 Points to the new Derby House on Park.

The way Zack Nettles describes it, he grew up in the Derby House restaurant in Five Points. He was a fixture there, and not just in his childhood.

"In my 20s, I ate here every day, sometimes twice," he said.

He can even name, from memory, the six owners the restaurant has had since it opened in 1944.

Now, Nettles and Michael Williams, the owners of Secret Garden Cafe on Beach Boulevard, are about to become the seventh owners.

The restaurant closed one chapter Sunday when Roy and Louise Reeves shut the doors. Monday morning, Nettles and Williams began work changing it into their own.

They're going to call it Derby on Park and hope to open in October.

"We still want a diner feel," Nettles said, "but not a diner. Jacksonville is inundated with diners. We love them, but there's enough."

Instead, they're looking to bring some of what they call new Southern comfort food from Secret Garden, but it won't be the same menu.

They are working on buying the building, which sits on the only true point in Five Points, from its current owners, Property Acquisitions Inc. They wouldn't name the price, saying it's still in negotiation.

But they've got no big plans for the small space next door, the one where Five Points News Center operated for 64 years. The Reeves closed that last year and turned it into a barbecue joint. That'll be just storage for now.

The two will continue to operate the Secret Garden, which gained them a certain amount of national fame this year on the Food Network's makeover show, "Restaurant Impossible."

They took exception to host Robert Irvine's portrayal of their economic situation, management style and culinary skills.

But Williams said the show and its reruns brought them plenty of business: up 50 percent at first before leveling off at a 30 percent increase.